He closes it. “All the essentials.”
I peer inside. “All that fit in here?”
“We’re prepared in case we get stranded on the side of the road, and there’s no Trader Joe's in sight.”
“You shop at Trader Joe's?”
“No. The name just popped out of my mouth. I order groceries from time to time—don’t know where they come from.”
The man is clueless.
So utterly clueless.
Still, he’s taking me for breakfast, so that counts for something.
My order is easy—it’s the same thing I get almost every day, every week—and Duke orders himself a drink too before we’re on our way again, pulling onto the highway for a second time in the matter of a half hour.
“One half hour down, two hours to go.” He holds up his pink, frothy beverage. “Cheers.”
I tap my cup with his, smiling as I sip around the straw, careful to look out the window so he doesn’t see me grinning like an idiot.
He’ll be gone soon.
Too soon.
We’ve had a lot of fun together. We’ve…fooled around, too, which was completely unexpected but not the worst thing in the world I’ve ever done. Duke has also proven to be a solid wingman, coming to my aid when I needed backup. Watching out for me despite denying he was watching out for me.
“The house will be so quiet once you’re gone,” I say at last, satisfied I’ve had all the sips I needed to sip. I take the breakfast sandwich out of its brown paper bag and nibble on the side.
“Real life calls,” he intones dryly.
“When is your thing?” I’m not sure what the particulars actually are. He hasn’t told me really anything at all, though Molly has dropped hints. There’s a press conference coming up, but it won’t be in Chicago. That’s all I know.
I have no idea what the press conference is even for.
All I know is he needed a place to lay low.
“My next thing is a press conference,” he explains. “It’s for…” He glances over at me. “Spose I can tell you now—I feel like I can trust you, eh? Besides, the whole world will know next week anyhow.”
I nod. “Of course you can trust me.”
“I left the New York Condors, and I’ll be playin’ for the Dallas Steers.”
Playing for Texas?
“I thought…” I clear my throat, not trusting myself to speak. I assumed because he was in Illinois that maybe he would be playing for Chicago? His agent is here, HE is here… I assumed he was only saying he was hiding out—I didn’t think he actually meant it.
“Why come all this way to hide? Why not just hide in your apartment?”
“You know what it’s like being cooped up. I wasn’t about to put myself through all that again. I needed to be somewhere no one would think to look for me, and New York ain’t the place.”
Cooped up.
Ah. He’s talking about the pandemic when we all had to stay home.
“No, New York certainly isn’t the place.” But being near Chicago really isn’t either, although the suburbs are small and far enough away. If someone saw him and wasn’t expecting to see him, they would probably just assume they were imagining things.
If that makes sense.